Often when we talk about the fight to reform the U.S. justice system or about ending mass incarceration, people with disabilities are left out of the conversation. Whether on purpose or by accident, the lack of discussion around incarceration and disability perpetuates ableism and the lack of support for people with disabilities when going through the U.S. justice system. HEARD (Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf), an organization based here in D.C., is working to break through this silence and make change.
HEARD’s name is what it aims to do: have people with disabilities be heard. The organization is not solely focused on criminal justice as it recognizes the interconnectedness of oppression, specifically stating on its website that it is a “a cross-disability abolitionist organization that unites across identities, communities, movements, and borders to end ableism, racism, capitalism, and all other forms of oppression and violence.” HEARD further states that its focus is to reject rigid hierarchies of disability and recognize people who are deaf as a party of the disability community. Part of this oppression that the organization works against is police violence against people with disabilities, which is spotlighted on their website, and also the experience of being deaf in prison.
To fight for disability-inclusive criminal justice reform, HEARD acknowledges the need for collective action and grassroots advocacy. The organization itself has launched numerous grassroots campaigns to achieve its mission, with one of them being the Deaf Prisoner Phone Justice Campaign. Launched in 2012, this campaign was designed to lobby the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring an end to the prisoner telephone rates that disproportionately affect people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Behind this campaign was the collective action of hundreds of prisoners who are deaf and also the assistance from national civil rights organizations and law firms. HEARD worked with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Defense Center, the National Disability Rights Network, and many other organizations to highlight the inaccessible and expensive technology used in prisons to make phone calls. Moreover, HEARD organized members of the Deaf Community, their families, and allies to submit comments to the FCC about how the absence of videophones and captioned telephones prevent them from connecting with loved ones.
Outside of organizing action, HEARD provides important resources that highlight the treatment of people with disabilities, especially people who are deaf, in prison; the organization is currently compiling a database of police violence against people who are deaf/have a disability and has released a documentary highlighting the experiences of being deaf in prison.
While their volunteer opportunities are paused at the moment, HEARD’s work continues on as the organization fights for disability justice within criminal justice reform. The organization provides legal assistance and advocacy work that highlights the abuse prisoners who are deaf often experience due to corrections officials’ inability to communicate effectively with them; its work also highlights how people who are deaf have communications issues in trial that can leave them vulnerable to wrongful conviction. Oftentimes these prisoners are not advocated for and become forgotten in the sea of mass incarceration, but HEARD has and will continue to speak up for and platform them.
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